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Chicago Squash Lessons from Palmer and White |
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By Alan Thatcher
Contributing Editor
The Sweet Home Chicago Open will provide squash enthusiasts an amazing sporting experience for spectators and students of the game alike.
Whether you are an experienced player or newcomer to the game to the game if you want to learn how to play squash, then my advice is simple: Watch David Palmer.
The tall Australian has been a dominant figure in the sport for the past decade, during which time he has won a host of major events, including the World Open and an impressive four British Open titles. He recently returned home to add the one piece missing from his impressive career CV: the Australian Open.
Palmer is the ultimate squash athlete. His game is based on power, pace and precision, allied to phenomenal physical strength, speed around the court, great touch at the front of the court and an inbuilt Australian resolve to chase every ball till he drops.
No wonder he is known as The Marine.
However, despite his extraordinary physical presence, Palmer is also one of the best movers in the game. His footwork has been grooved down the years with endless hours of practice with his visionary coach, Shaun Moxham, so that's another area of his game that should be studied by ambitious players of all ages and ability.
When Palmer won the World Open in Belgium in 2002, he defeated his great friend and rival John White.
They had both been coached as youngsters by the amazing Joe Shaw and seeing his two young charges going head to head in a World Open final was the pinnacle of his lifetime's work for squash.
White thought he had won the match in the fourth game with a superb boast but somehow Palmer dug the ball out before going on to win 13-15, 12-15, 15-6, 15-14, 15-11 in one of the sport's epic finals.
Continuing the earlier educational theme, if you want to know how to hit the ball hard then just watch Whitey in action.
His unique action is assisted by a phenomenal ability to bend and twist his body into all kinds of shapes that defy anotomical description.
The end result is a powerhouse kill shot that he is able to unleash from anywhere on the cout, either on the backhand or the forehand that makes him the hardest hitter in the history of squash.
When Andy Roddick struck 150mph in tennis, I throught it was time to test the world's leading players and so I bought my own radar gun for use with leading events such as the ISS Canary Wharf Classic in London.
Whitey did not disappoint. He simply crushed the ball time after time, recording 171mph on his backhand and 172mph on his forehand.
My next ambition is to test him in action with the American hardball doubles ball. We'd all have to don hard hats for that one!
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